SOE planning single subscription model

The president of Sony Online Entertainment has said the company is flirting with the idea of introducing a $14.99 subscription model for all PC users.

Speaking in a post on Reddit, (via EuroGamer) John Smedley unfortunately made it clear that PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 users will likely not benefit from the move should it be given the green light.

“We are considering (and are likely going to move forward with) a plan that means if you subscribe to one of our games you are a subscriber to all our games (this applies to PC titles only btw).. all for the current $14.99 a month. That’s a benefit most companies simply can’t offer because they don’t have our portfolio of games.

“The goal would be to let you pick an item in each game you play. Some of you might say “well who cares..I only play Planetside 2. How is that a benefit to me?” My answer is simple – we’ve got a great lineup of games, some of which aren’t announced yet that cater to a lot of players. We have EQN and EQNL coming along with other….. games… that PS2 players might just like,” he said.

Sadly, console owners aren't part of the planned package.

“We can’t do the same kind of promotions as easily on the PS3 and PS4. We’re a lot more limited because we can’t use [SOE premium currency] Station Cash on there. So when we have a 3x sale on SC we have to do something different for our console titles. It’s a pain in the neck to deal with this.”

What do you make of SOE’s decision? Let us know in the comments section below.

Now I have to admit that this is interesting, I played EQ and EQ2, played PS1 to death, currently playing PS2 and DCUO, and I'll be getting a founders membership for EQN/EQN Landmark. $15/month (most likely £12/m) will actually benefit me quite a lot and considering that there's also Dragon's Profit also to come then it will be a treat to have so many games to freely download and play at will. Not only that but if you get bored of one of the games then you can go to another one. So $15/m for 8 games (just under $2/m) is a bargain. As long as you get the full experience then you'll end up paying less per game than F2P titles.

Actually let me list the games that they are mentioning PC:

DC Universe Online

EverQuest

EverQuest 2

Free Realms

PlanetSide

PlanetSide 2

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

Those are the available games on this scheme, although they currently have a F2P model around them so I wonder how they're going to work around that.

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